America Rewind: Faded remains of the 'American Way of Life' explored through photography

Using an analogue, large-format camera, the photographer documented a trip that went from Atlantic City to Houston, Las Vegas, Butte, Minot, Detroit, and all the way back to Philadelphia. The result is a photographic road movie, portraying the poignant beauty of the American hinterlands: abandoned motels, shuttered movie theatres, overgrown façades, and faded billboards are "silent testimony to long-gone days".

Georges's curiosity about remote places and the narrative tension of his photographic series thread their way through his oeuvre. In the aesthetics of the abandoned, the photographer searches for elements that remain alive, that recall the past to mind.

“The driving force is the search for whatever has remained intact, the same way that you look for things in a second-hand shop.” Georges's photographs seem like a plea for the necessity of enjoying life, even during hard times, even when there’s not much left to do but watch sports on TV or restore old muscle cars while sipping a can of beer. Discover more at www.hatjecantz.de.

Via Creative Boom submission | All images © Emmanuel Georges